![]() This will come as a big shock to some, but I’ve tried three times - four if you count when my 13-year-old self banged his head against the wall in his grade school lavatory. I'm basically telling you, don't do what I have done, because with all my heart, I wish I could take it all back. And I know personally, and maybe revealing my own experience can help others recognize why someone would attempt it themselves - and why they shouldn't. We don’t need anyone to tell us that it is. You probably don't need to read more comments from psychologists that reaffirm why our community seems to be impacted more often by suicide. This column isn’t about statistics or studies. And I have come close a few times to losing my own battle with suicide. Regrettably, I have lost three people to suicide: a high school friend, my cousin, and recently, a very close friend. To my surprise, it seemed as if everyone on our staff knew at least one person who had taken their own life. When the editors in our newsroom saw the news of Mark's death on our company Slack, we were all very saddened, and in the process, we had a running dialogue about how prevalent suicide is in the LGBTQ+ community. Perhaps, Glaze’s final advocacy will be to shine a light on a subject that is very dark and very prevalent, and which few people truly understand, suicide. We pray that by being open about Mark’s cause of death, something positive may emerge from our devastating loss.” All who have been bereaved by suicide face a time of unimaginable grief, misplaced guilt, and unanswerable questions. #Hello darkness my old friend free#He completed several treatment programs, with the hope of finding peace and breaking free of the addictive cycle that caused him to feel so desperately alone and in pain. In the last years of his life, Mark actively sought help. “As we celebrate the life of our beloved Mark, we would be remiss not to mention his harrowing struggle with alcohol, depression, and anxiety. Glaze's family took the very difficult step of being up front about the cause of his death, releasing the following statement on Facebook: And for some, the holidays can be a lonely and unforgiving time for anyone in the throes of desperation. Self-medicating depression or anxiety or grief with alcohol or drugs isn't uncommon. Many of us lived with estrangement at best, criminalization at worst. And for some of us, suicide can feel inevitable.Īs with lesbian, transgender, and bisexual peers who came of age prior to the 2000s, the treatment from our families, employers, friends, and judicial systems was very different than it is today. My own experience and that of Mark Glaze show that middle-aged gay men are just as much at risk as we struggle to adapt to aging, surviving the early AIDS epidemic, all while sometimes carrying immense pain through our lives that stem from difficult teenage years coping with the fear and loathing of being gay, or remnants of abuse. For Black teens it's even worse suicide attempts rose nearly 80 percent among Black youth in the last decade, according to a JAMA study. Amazon just released the film Joe Bell, about a father (Mark Wahlberg in a poignant performance) who attempted to walk across America to call attention to bullying, which ultimately led to Bell’s own son committing suicide. ![]() Suicide, to many people, is something we usually associate with LGBTQ+ youth, those who struggle mightily with their sexuality or gender identity, with parents who aren't accepting, with peers who bully. Friends, colleagues, and fans of his work were shocked. ![]() His death, it was announced, was the result of suicide. He was also a gay father who struggled with addiction. VictoriA.Prior to that, Glaze had worked for the Human Rights Campaign during the Obama administration, where he helped push the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell.” He was a frequent voice in The Advocate. Here come the sound of darkness Comment by. Very sad song-it's a remembrance-covered well Comment by Hayley SATAN CAN YOU HEAR ME?!?!!! Comment by Axolotl ![]()
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